Your Digital Twin — Technology’s Project
How well does your technology know you? And is it time to better protect our anonymity?
We all love technology and social media, right? Google Home helps us when our hands are busy and social platforms like Facebook help us feel connected and save us time logging in elsewhere. We have a pretty good understanding of how new technologies help us. Otherwise, we wouldn’t bother having them. Well, you will be interested to know that these technologies and platforms aren’t just there to help YOU, but they are also helping big data companies and marketers get to know you better. What we often don’t know is how and what our apps are sharing about us with third parties — the “black box” problem.
Understanding consumer interests and purchasing tendencies is increasingly important for companies in a globalised world where consumers have access to hundreds of product alternatives. This allows platforms like Facebook to make more than $40 billion in revenue annually by collating and storing user data for analysis. Increasing demands for more comprehensive information on consumers has led to a rising number of other apps sharing sensitive user data with social platforms like Facebook.
For example, health apps like Flo Health Inc.’s Flo Period & Ovulation Tracker have been sharing user data and, in some instances, told Facebook when a user was having her period or informed the app of an intention to get pregnant.
The Wall Street Journal found another case where Instant Heart Rate: HR Monitor sent a user’s heart rate to Facebook “immediately after it was recorded”.
Partnerships such as these are enabling platforms like Facebook to indirectly collect a plethora of information that can be used to build digital twins of every user. In short, a digital twin is a virtual replica of any person, process or product that is built on information such as biometric, demographic, psychographic and habitual details. In the wrong hands, a digital twin can be used to impersonate someone to gain access to anything that person has access to and more. It sounds impossible or like some wacky conspiracy theory, I know, but it wouldn’t actually be that hard for someone to pull off.
Think about it this way: you tell Facebook all about your demographic information in your profile as well as your interests, which is supported by your user activity and linked to your email.
You’re a normal person, so you also have a Google Gmail account, which is likely the same as your Facebook email AND the one you use as your Apple ID email (you’re an iPhone person). Your Apple ID is linked to your credit cards through Wallet, as well as your iPhone touch ID and/or facial recognition — which can be replicated.
Then, your health app talks to your period tracking app (you are also a female in this case) and your fitness apps where you have location services enabled. Now, your credit card information, biometric template data, locations and health information are all linked to your email and social accounts which is ripe for the picking for any hacker.
I’m not saying that Facebook is attempting to create digital twins for every user.
What I am saying is that anyone who gains access to Facebook’s systems illegally can collate this data for sinister purposes. And let’s face it…Facebook’s security may not be adequate, which the Cambridge Analytica scandal and this recent data breach have made apparent.
I’m sure you are panicking a little at the moment. That’s not my intention. I simply want you to understand why it’s important to take preventative measures now to protect your identity and anonymity because technology is only going to keep evolving. You might be wondering, what could possibly stop a hacker from collecting your information by tracing your email and where it’s used?
‘Algorithmic Gaurdians’
There may just be a solution. ‘Algorithmic guardians’ can help us protect our anonymity whilst online. These are envisaged as virtual personal assistants that accompany us wherever we go online. They can alert us to what is going on behind the scenes of each site and help address the “black box” problem we face, and also help us protect ourselves from the hundreds of data breaches every year.
As the name suggests, they are algorithms much like the ones that collect our data, however, the one important difference is that they are owned by, and work for the individual — not a corporation.
This simply means that it will be looking out for your interests and not some ulterior motive.
These ‘algorithmic guardians’ will operate according to our personal preferences like a program or app installed on our devices . We will be able to specify what information we would like to be public, private and erased. For example, each time we visit a new website, our guardian will tell us what information that website is accessing through a notification type display and give us the choice to be recognisable or anonymous.
This technology is emerging now and will likely be one of the only pieces of technology helping us to stay ahead of the game, and I won’t be sitting on the bench. With the help of ‘algorithmic guardians’, if an app wants to tell Facebook that I’m having a baby, I’ll know about it before it happens.
